For Wisdom and Leadership

Our decisions are not only a team effort, but they look to our ethical and moral guide, the Torah. For that, we have a blessing to keep us grounded. This blessing is often recited upon seeing a wise person, and it can serve as a way to reflect on Joseph’s God-given insight.

Turn It Again: Torah Wisdom for Today – Miketz

In Pirkei Avot, a book of maxims in the Mishnah, an ancient rabbi, Ben Bag-Bag said about Torah study, “Hafokh bah, va’Hafokh vah, d’khola bah.” Turn it over and over, for everything is in it. For two thousand years, that’s what Jews have done. Here is another turning.

Hope Without Progress

Does hope depend on progress? If it does, we are likely to experience despair whenever things move backward. Hope is not only possible but especially necessary when a society seems to regress. This week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev, offers an opportunity to examine this concept in light of disturbing contemporary issues.

A Coat of Many Colors

There’s a joy in those “new” smells, whether it’s that newborn baby smell, the smell of spring, or the smell of a new car or a new pair of shoes. We often try to extend this moment of newness by saying something like “Use it in good health.” It’s a little like a prayer or a blessing that the moment of gratitude will only continue.

Pillar of Memory

As the Torah stands strong throughout the test of time, so too the honoring of a life will be remembered by the placing of a headstone or marker. Interestingly, for all of the occasions for blessings we have, there is no traditional blessing recited at an unveiling. Instead, the rabbis remind us of the blessing of life, the blessings we have when we come together, when we preserve memory, and when we tell our stories.

Turn It Again: Torah Wisdom for Today – Vayishlach

In Pirkei Avot, a book of maxims in the Mishnah, an ancient rabbi, Ben Bag-Bag said about Torah study, “Hafokh bah, va’Hafokh vah, d’khola bah.” Turn it over and over, for everything is in it. For two thousand years, that’s what Jews have done. Here is another turning.